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Xp pro says starting windows but never does

johnnygonefishin`

Posted 06 November 2005 - 09:11 AM

johnnygonefishin`

Member

Member

20 posts

I turn on computer,screens says XP pro, flips to next screen "Windows is starting up"...freezes there,I hit f8 on statup and chose Xp with command promp tscrolls thru a bunch of files than does the same screen Windows is starting up...freezes, Tried chosing "last known good config,,same thing Windows is starting up

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Fenor

Posted 06 November 2005 - 09:38 AM

johnnygonefishin`

Posted 06 November 2005 - 09:51 AM

johnnygonefishin`

Member

Topic Starter

Member

20 posts

yes I've tried evey option that comes up on f8's menu, safe mode,safemode with command, screen turns black says safemode in all 4 corners than goes to blue screen that says starting windows,computer is a Dell with only cd drive. (no floppy)i have the cd that came with it but it doesn't boot from it.cd says operating systen already installed on your system. reinstalation disk win xp plus sp2

Fenor

Posted 06 November 2005 - 09:58 AM

Fenor

Trusted Tech

Retired Staff

5,236 posts

Have you tried hitting F10 while the computer is booting? Some systems have a recovery partition and you hit F10 to access it, and you are given the option of doing a non-destructive recovery. Let me know if you have that option.

Jo Franklin

Posted 21 November 2005 - 12:52 PM

Jo Franklin

Member

Member

26 posts

If you have 2 CD drives, or a large USB memory stick, you can transfer all of yor vital information to them whilst running the Knoppix Linux live CD. Alternately, you can use QT Part ED on the Mepis Linix live CD to install Mepis onto your HD and rescue your vital stuff on to a CD/DVD using that method.

Fenor

Posted 21 November 2005 - 07:51 PM

Fenor

Trusted Tech

Retired Staff

5,236 posts

Sounds to me like you could have a Video or RAM problem. If you are using an AGP video card (and have onboard video available), take out the AGP video card and see if the computer boots up normally using onboard video.

Another thing you can try is removing/reseeding the RAM, blowing dust off the stick of RAM and the slot it goes into. You can also try removing one of the sticks of RAM leaving just one in. Try each stick of RAM by itself in the computer in each slot and trying booting up.

You can also try removing any PCI devices you have installed and try to boot the computer up.

What I suggest you do first is combine all of the above examples. Remove the AGP card, use only one stick of RAM and remova all PCI cards. I would also suggest that you disconnect all CD/DVD-ROM drives and secondary hard drives. If the computer boots up with all these disconnected, then it is just a case of trial and error until you figure out what piece of hardware is bad.

Also, if available to you, try doing a complete fresh install of windows XP, deleting the partition and creating a new one and doing a FULL, NOT QUICK, format of the drive and see how things go.

These are all just testing procedures to try to narrow done exactly what is causing XP to hang during boot.